Friday, 21 November 2008

A mild romantic comedy starring Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan who are only very briefly on screen together. Hanks plays Sam Baldwin, whose wife dies before the start of the film. He moves with his son, Jonah (Ross Malinger), from Chicago to Seattle for a change of scene. Meanwhile, in Baltimore, Ryan's character, Annie Reed, is engaged to Walter (Bill Pullman), a nice enough guy but hardly the love of her life (as she soon comes to realize) and annoyingly allergic. One night, driving home for Christmas, she hears Dr Marcia Fieldstone's phone-in radio show. Jonah has called up to say his dad needs a second wife. Dr Marcia asks to speak to Sam and names him Sleepless in Seattle (whence the title). His sad story garners thousands of phone calls and letters from female listeners keen to get his address. Annie eventually becomes one of them - convinced that he could be The One for her.

Nora Ephron co-writes and directs this film, which is in a similar vein to her other stand-out writing credits When Harry Met Sally... (1989) and You've Got Mail (1998), both of which are more successful: the former for comic wit; the latter for intricate meet-cute plotting.